We're Home!

We're home! All safe and sound. All and all the trip was a great success! We finished all the errands we needed to do with the help of our boss. So all our money should be in our account from Korea by the end of the month. YAY! I think my boss was sad to see us go (Koreans really hide emotions so generally he seemed no more than apathetic at best towards our existance). Especially since he drove us around to do those errands and his family gave us a goodbye gift (a GORGEOUS set of mugs- really beautiful Korean pottery) and my boss hugged us before we left. So did all his kids and his wife. He thanked us for being "such great teachers" and said to please come and visit anytime if we are back in Korea. Aww!

We got to the airport really early but it didn't matter since we were there with all our stuff! Plus Joi lives so close to the airport and came there to hang out and eat lunch with us and say goodbye so that was nice. We were slightly delayed getting on our flight but somehow it didn't delay when the flight left so it was okay. When we got on the plane we had to walk to the very back of it to get to our seats. Literally there was only one row left behind us! Then some people come up and have the exact same seats printed on their tickets!! Uh oh! They double booked our seats. THEN WE WERE BUMPED TO FIRST CLASS!!!!! It was like a movie! First class was glorious. Of course I'd been so tired before getting on the plane and planned to sleep straight away but then when they put us in first class I was so wired. I was reading the menu and looking at the awesome travel bags full of samples we got and drinking my favorite port for free. And looking like a big time loser (let's just say I was definitely the most excited person to be in first class). The seats were so huge that I had to actually stand up and walk over to get my bag from under the seat in front of me! And I couldn't touch the ground when sitting in the chair. Luckily the seat had a foot rest and could be reclined and stuff. It was so great. For dinner I had the goose and asparagus wrapped in smoked salmon for an appetizer, the beef tenderloin for my main and ice cream with chocolate sauce and almonds for dessert! For breakfast I had apple crepes with blueberry compote and I stole the tiny adorable jar of maple syrup. It's way too cute!

I have to say though, other than the size of the seat and the amount of space you get, regular class on Air Singapore or Korean Air is actually better. I did get my own little video screen in first-class Air Canada (regular class doesn't get it) but in regular class on the Asian airlines you get your own and there are 10x more things you can do with it. So if you're flying internationally, seriously, try to get on an Asian airline.

We arrived at Vancouver noon, local time, and the lineups to get through immigration and customs were insane! We got to go through the "fast lane" since we only had a 2 hour layover but we almost missed our flight! Matt's Mom came there hoping we'd be delayed. She almost got her wish! We seriously thought we missed our flight since we had to pick up our luggage and we stood there waiting and waiting and waiting and it never came! We were supposed to board our flight at 1:40pm and that's when we got our luggage finally! then we still had to walk through customs! But when we went to rebook they said we could still make it! So we ran and we did! (Poor Alana was really sad.) We sat down and like 5 minutes later we took off! It was like the Amazing Race or something!

We got to Edmonton (nothing noteworthy about the flight from Vancouver. Cramped but short) and Mom and Dad were there. We waited for our luggage but only 3 out of 4 suitcases showed up. So we made a claim and they said the other one should be sent to us today. I don't feel that worried (yet, I guess). We know it's in Canada since we saw it in Vancouver so it should be okay. It could have been worse- a family on our flight lost all 9 pieces of their luggage!

Next we went to take our computer to get fixed. Let's just make a long story short and say they are bastards and I hate Best Buy. Hopefully they fix the problems and fast. None of this 4-6 weeks crap. I miss the computer already! Then we went for dinner and met with Cindy and George. It was so great to see them! We didn't get to eat where we wanted (huge waiting time and they don't take reservations) and had to go somewhere else but it didn't matter because it was more about the company than the food.

After dinner we drove back to Mom's, first stopping to say hi to my stepmom and stepbrother. I was so out of it at this point that I would be talking and forget what I had just said. We got to Mom's at about 11pm and got organized and went to sleep. I slept from about 12:30-10:30 and I feel pretty good right now. I hope I can adapt easily. Seems easier coming back then going there. And tonight Stephie and Travis are coming home for the weekend from university. Should be lots of fun!

Sorry this is so text heavy and image shy. I'll try to see if I can post some pictures sometime using Mom's computer. It could be rough going for the blog until we get our computer back.